Birthdate: 0380 AD

Birthplace: Marmara Island, Turkey

Died: 0320 AD

Greek mathematician Menaechmus is best remembered for discovering conic sections, or the concepts of hyperbola, parabola, and ellipse. Well acquainted with Plato, he is also believed to have tutored Alexander the Great. An epigram by Greek polymath Eratosthenes has been the chief record of Menaechmus’s works.